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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / How to help endangered species?

« on: 30/01/2021 23:09:31 »

1. Learn about endangered species in your area.
2. Visit a national wildlife refuge, park or other open space
3. Make your home wildlife friendly.
4. Native plants provide food and shelter for native wildlife.
5. Herbicides and pesticides may keep yards looking nice but they are in fact hazardous pollutants that affect wildlife at many levels.
6. Slow down when driving.
7. Recycle and buy sustainable products.
8. Never purchase products made from threatened or endangered species.'
9. Harassing wildlife is cruel and illegal.
10. Protect wildlife habitat.

To have a deeper insight into each point, visit the website: endangered.org

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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Endangered species

« on: 30/01/2021 23:06:05 »

Scientists tell us the best way to protect endangered species is to protect the places where they live. Get involved by volunteering at your local nature center or wildlife refuge. Go wildlife or bird watching in nearby parks. Wildlife related recreation creates millions of jobs and supports local businesses.

Here are some citically endangered species- taken from the website worldwildlife.org
COMMON NAME   SCIENTIFIC NAME   CONSERVATION STATUS ↓
Amur Leopard   Panthera pardus orientalis   Critically Endangered
Black Rhino   Diceros bicornis   Critically Endangered
Bornean Orangutan   Pongo pygmaeus   Critically Endangered
Cross River Gorilla   Gorilla gorilla diehli   Critically Endangered
Eastern Lowland Gorilla   Gorilla beringei graueri   Critically Endangered
Hawksbill Turtle   Eretmochelys imbricata   Critically Endangered
Javan Rhino   Rhinoceros sondaicus   Critically Endangered
Orangutan   Pongo abelii, Pongo pygmaeus   Critically Endangered
Saola   Pseudoryx nghetinhensis   Critically Endangered
Sumatran Elephant   Elephas maximus sumatranus   Critically Endangered
Sumatran Orangutan   Pongo abelii   Critically Endangered
Sumatran Rhino   Dicerorhinus sumatrensis   Critically Endangered
Sunda Tiger   Panthera tigris sondaica   Critically Endangered
Vaquita   Phocoena sinus   Critically Endangered
Western Lowland Gorilla   Gorilla gorilla gorilla   Critically Endangered
Yangtze Finless Porpoise   Neophocaena asiaeorientalis ssp. asiaeorientalis   Critically Endangered

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Marine Science / How plastic damages the sealife?

« on: 30/01/2021 23:01:24 »

Do you know that:
- More than 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine animals die from plastic pollution every year.
- 100% of baby sea turtles have plastic in their stomachs.
- There is now 5.25 trillion macro and micro pieces of plastic in our ocean & 46,000 pieces in every square mile of ocean, weighing up to 269,000 tonnes.
-  Every day around 8 million pieces of plastic makes their way into our oceans.
- The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is around 1.6 million square kilometers – bigger than Texas.
- The world produces 381 million tonnes in plastic waste yearly – this is set to double by 2034. 50% of this is single-use plastic & only 9% has ever been recycled.
- Over 2 million tonnes of plastic packaging are used in the UK each year. 88% of the sea's surface is polluted by plastic waste.
- Between 8 to 14 million tonnes enters our ocean every year
Source: Condor Ferries ltd 2021

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Famous Scientists, Doctors and Inventors / Darvin's observations

« on: 30/01/2021 17:03:17 »

Hello! I wanted to share with you a great article which is easy to understand what Darvin's theory is and how he came up with the idea.
A search for the "mechanism" of evolution did not begin with Darwin, but his evidence for the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, published in 1859, was so comprehensive it swept away all other theories and became a major turning point in the study of biology.
Among the vast body of data supplied by Darwin are five key observations:

More offspring are born than ever survive to become adults (an idea he found in a 1789 essay on economics by Reverend Thomas Malthus). Female fish can lay thousands of eggs, but usually only one or two survive to become adults.
Among these offspring, there is a range of values for any trait; in other words there is variation. Some goldfish have golden scales, some have orange scales, some have brownish scales, and some have a mixture.
This variation extends to all traits, even those vital for the survival of the individual. An eagle, which depends on superior eyesight to locate its prey, can still be born shortsighted. All variations are, therefore, random and not specifically directed toward any preferential adaptation.
All offspring compete within their natural environments for food, resources, mates, and safety from harm. Those with the weakest combinations of traits die, whereas those with the best combinations of traits survive to reproductive maturity more often. There is a natural selection for those individuals that are the fittest.
The survivors pass on their traits to the next generation and the process is repeated. Over millions of years, such gradual changes lead to changes in the whole population and hence to the origin of an entirely new species.
Put in modern terms, Darwin explained that random events create changes in the genotype of the organisms. These changes are then reflected in variations in the phenotype.

Combinations of these variations, distributed among large numbers of offspring and expressed as different phenotypes, are in competition for survival.

Nature and the natural environment "select" the most fit phenotype and discard the least fit phenotypes. Darwin, therefore, viewed evolution as the gradual accumulation of genotypic change in a population of organisms to the point that the population becomes a new species.


BIOdotEDU, 2001, Professor John Blamire